The Disability Affairs Committee met five times during the 2000 - 2001 academic year. The committee addressed the following issues: 1) problems with handicapped parking on campus; 2) the University's compliance plan; and 3) Section 508 regulations for technology accessibility.

Parking for persons with disabilities is a major problem because faculty, staff, and students are all competing for the reserved spaces. Because of this growing problem, the Disability Affairs Committee invited Ernie Ellis, the Director of Law Enforcement and Safety, and Derrick Huggins, the Deputy Director for Vehicle Management and Parking Services, to meet with the committee to discuss possible solutions. Mr. Ellis and Mr. Huggins made the following recommendations: 1) that students with disabilities still be allowed to park in faculty/staff lots; 2) that Parking Services be more stringent when issuing temporary handicapped parking permits; and 3) that Law Enforcement and Safety more carefully check vehicles with non-USC issued handicapped tags in USC handicapped spaces. The Committee accepted these recommendations and deferred any additional action until these recommendations are in effect.
A recommendation was also made that someone from Parking Services should be added to the Disability Affairs Committee.

In 1992 the University conducted an ADA compliance self-study to determine the accessibility of campus buildings. Although many of the projects identified in that study have been completed, there are still some buildings that are not accessible to persons with disabilities. The Committee discussed some of these problem areas and what could be done to make the buildings accessible.

Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 requires federal agencies to make information technology accessible to persons with disabilities. As a result, the State of South Carolina and its various agencies need to make the information on Web pages accessible to those with functional impairments. The Committee discussed things USC could do to comply with these new regulations and asked the Chair to contact USC's Chief Information Officer about Section 508 and its impact on USC.

This page created 29 August 2001 by the Office of the Faculty Senate and Computer Services.
Copyright 1999-2001, The Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina
URL http://www.sc.edu/faculty/senate/01/annual/disability